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<title>Day 8: A Hug Is All You Need by Fundelstein</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27662003">Day 8: A Hug Is All You Need</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fundelstein/pseuds/Fundelstein'>Fundelstein</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Cloti Fall Festival 2020 [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cloti Fall Festival 2020, Discord: Final Heaven, F/M, Flowers, Fluff and Angst, Hugging, Podfic Welcome, Resolution Scene, Tears</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 22:17:00</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>603</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27662003</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fundelstein/pseuds/Fundelstein</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Final Day of the Cloti Fall Festival.</p><p>Free Day.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Tifa Lockhart/Cloud Strife</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Cloti Fall Festival 2020 [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1974253</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Day 8: A Hug Is All You Need</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.<br/>- Audrey Hepburn</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Every time I close my eyes, I can still see the fire. I can still hear the screams. Here I am, safe and sound in this little hideaway in the slums. Yet the rubble is still burning, people are still dying, and Aerith was taken away. Everything is gone. I’ve lost everything… again.</p><p>
  <em>They’ve taken everything from us… again.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I’m sick of this. I’m sick of all of this.</em>
</p><p>I can’t stand laying in this bed. I can’t stand being in this house. I need to breathe.</p><p>So I leave. I head outside, into the night. I go all the way up the hill. But outside isn’t much better. Even in this beautiful garden, I can smell the smoke and dust. There’s nothing to do but wallow. Wallow under the lamp post. Wallow in the yellow flowers.</p><p>Flowers. Cloud gave me one of these. Ah, is that where it came from? That must be when he met her. He started acting strange after that, so I wondered…</p><p>It’s stupid. This isn’t the time to be petty.</p><p>Aerith could be in who knows what kind of danger. And that’s… on me.</p><p>And why? Why did Cloud give it to me? Why would he give me that flower at all.</p><p>Wait… Cloud?</p><p>He’s coming out of the house. He’s headed up here. Headed straight here.</p><p>When he reaches the top, he asks me if I couldn’t sleep. Of course I couldn’t.</p><p>“No, you too?”</p><p>“I heard footsteps,” he explained.</p><p>I should have known someone would hear. “I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to wake you.”</p><p>He brushes it right off. “It’s a SOLDIER thing,” he says.</p><p>I remember what President Shinra said. He mentioned… degradation? What’s that supposed to mean? What’s going to happen to you, Cloud?</p><p>I don’t ask. I can’t.</p><p>I tell him that I know about the flower. I know it’s from Aerith. I don’t mean to mean to trouble him, honest. I looked it up after he gave it to me. It means “reunion” in the language of flowers. It was so pretty. I tried to keep it alive as long as I could, but it’s gone now. It’s gone.</p><p>“But now it’s dead and buried. Like the bar… our home… and everything else.”</p><p>I… I can’t take it anymore. All I can I hide my face. I hide my face against his chest. And he just lets me. And then the tears come. I can’t stop sobbing.</p><p>“They took everything from us… again.”</p><p>I can’t make any of it stop. So I cry, and I cry, and I cry...</p><p>And then, he holds me. He holds me. Just like that. And all the pain pours out of me. Like a bunch of filth coming out of me. Until I can’t cry anymore. Then everything falls still. The smoke lingers in the air, but my head’s clearing up. It feels like I’m <em>really</em>breathing again.</p><p>Then his grip tightens around me. That hurts. That’s starting to hurt a little. Cloud?</p><p>“Cloud. Cloud, you’re hurting me.”</p><p>Cloud grunts and backs off, letting me go. I regret saying anything at all. He’d held me like was he was willing to hold me all night.</p><p>“It’s stupid,” I say. “I know that crying's a waste of time.”</p><p>“That’s not true,” he replies.</p><p>Gaia, here am I being jealous over Aerith. And he’s being nothing but sweet.</p><p>“Thank you.”</p><p>We talk a little bit longer. And every minute with him, I feel more at ease. Then he urges me, saying we need to rest. I let him lead the way.</p><p>We go back to the house together.</p>
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